Airship mast



varch 1932, H. STRIEFFLER AIRSHIP MAST Filed Aug. 14, 1950 5 Sheets-Sheet March L1932. H. STRIEFFLER S-GS RSHIP MAST Filed Aug. 1930 5 Sheets-Shes@ Manrch l, 1932. H. STRIEFFLER AIRSHIP MAST Filed Aug. 14, 1930 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented Mar. l, 1932 l HEINRICH afremmen,

or LANDAU, 'GERMANY AIBSHIP MAST Applicatie nieanugust 14, 1930. rerun romain. l

The present invention relates to an airship mast, the essential feature of which is that it has ahead provided with fastening vmeans for the anchoring of an air-ship, and in which .Y

the supporting pillar is inclinable in all directions underthe control of resilient, forces. f' At the. same time the head can be turned in all directions as required. vThe supporting pillar has at its foot a joint allowing. o-a m similar movement in all directions, and such pillar is held taut by means of tensioning devices 'which incorporate springs. The nl ,asthead isA preferably constructed as a plat form, and is provided with a cover for pro-2 teetion from the.wind,`wh 1ch cover can take the form vof an elastic buffer. The foot of the mastmay be situated in a suitableI man- .ner on spring members yieldin in the direction ofthe longitudinal axis o the mast. It

au is particularly advantageous if the pivoted head of the mast protrudes through the windrotection cup to be located between its bearing surface. and its apex.' In a further' em'- bodiment the foot of themast is attached to a girder which can berotated on a vertical axis and maybe swung round a horizontal axis, and tbe. head of the mast is directed.I downwards, in which oase thegirder isborne l `caused to vibrate 1n relation to one another bya second mast.v v so Inthe drawings the invention is illustrated by wayof example in various embodiments. Figures l and. 2 show in lan the known .means of. fastening an air-s of a `rigidly anchored mast., A

Figure 3 is an elevation and A Figure 4 a plan of asiniple embodiment of an air-ship mast according to this invention.

` Figure 3a showsv another'design of the 49 'top of the mast.

Figure 5 is a plan' corresponding' to Figure 4 oi a must providedwith a wind-protection y Figures 6, 7 8 and 94 are elevations of lairship masts fitted `with wind-protection caps according to the invention, and

Figure 10 is a side view of a further-improved embodiment, of which the construe! tion is diagrammatically represented in Figure 11.

ip tothe avoided. The simplest embodiment of the 1 `socket 8. At its head, which is suitably prothfground in a circular disposition, and thus Figures 12, 13 and 13a show two dierent embodiments of a part of a mast hereinafter referred to. y r v Figure 1 shows in plan avknown method of anchoring of the nose l of an air-ship by means of a securing cable 2 to a shock absorber 4 placed so that it may swing at the summit- 3 of the air-ship mast. 'When sudden gusts of wind from the side garrows A) occur, with such a method of anc oring, the 00 shock absorber is swung from its position I into, position II, While the body of the airship, owing to the inertia 0f its great bulk, is merely displaced in a. parallel direction. As a result of this, great strains are set up at the point where the securing cable is fastened to the air-ship, these'strains being prejud1c1al and frequently causing disturbances such as the snapping of the cable or breaking od, of the nose of the air-ship. For this reason a method has already been tried by making provision for a revolving wind-protection cap 5 (see Figure 2) enclosing the shock absorber 4 into which cap is guided the nose of the air shi which is fastened to the securing cable of t ie shock absorber. In this case also the longitudinal axes of the wind-protection cap and the air-ship are cur, so that the rim of the cap presses into the nose of the air-ship (see. position II Figure 2) and the anchoring cable is broken oil". Bythe present invention these defects are new air-ship mast is shown diagrammatically in Figures 3 and 4. The mast 6, which may be constructed from a rigid tube, is provided at its foot with aV ball 7 mounted in a vided with a platform 9 wire cables or similar tensioning 4devices 10 are fixed therearound, whichv wire cables-are anchored to hol taut the mast 6.l Springs 1'1 are inserted in the tensioning devices, which springs permit an elastic yield of the mast in al1 directions. At the top of the mast, the air-ship 1 is fastened with the aid of a securing cable :E which passes over a pulley 26. The pulley ship mast also functions as a giant butler staircase 12 or the like winds around the mast from the ground to the top, and terminatesl in an upper platform 9 from which one can mount the air-ship by a step 25. The ordinary position of rest of the mast with the anchored airship is shown in full lines Figure 4. On the sudden occurrence of powerframe of girder construction is'rotatablyV mounted which frame on the one side takes the form of a wind-protection cap 22 and on l the opposite side 23 carries a balance weight A spiral staircasev 24 round the supf porting column 14 leads to the platform 19 from which a step or gangway 25 leads out ul gusts of wind (direction shown by aff' 'through the Wind-protectioncap, with which row A) the mast bends with the wind, and the air-ship is displaced in a position practically parallel to its original posit-ion, so that mast and air-shi take the position shown by dotted linein ieure 4 where they are in the same favourable relative position to each other as before the bending of the mast. Thus no prejudicial vstrains on the securing members are set up in this case.

Fiffure 5 shows a further embodiment according to which a wind-protection cap 5, which ie suitably constructed of a light metal, and which receives the nose of the air-ship, is placed so that it may revolve at the top of the mast 6 which is flexible in all direct-ions under the control of elastic forces; and in this cap the anchoring cable 2 is attached to a shock absorber 4. From the top of the mast, securing cables 10 pass radially and downwardly in all directions which cables are anchored to the ground and are fitted with tension springs. In this case also the mast is able, in the case of gusts of wind suddenly coming from the side, to bend with the wind, and thus it can yield with the body of the air-ship together with the wind protection cap by means of which action unfavourably acting forces are eliminated. As a result of this construction the whole airwhen the air-ship bumps, and resiliently yields in all directions. In the wind-protection cap itself buiers of any desired kind may be also fitted.

In the case of the embodiment shown 1n elevation in Figure 6, the supporting column 14 of the air-ship mast is formed of a girder construction rectangular in plan, and has a lower ball 15 resting in a ball socket 16. The socket 16 is supported, with a level bedplate 17, on compression springs 18 which enables an elastic downward movement of the mast to be obtained in the direction of its longitudinal axis. To the topplatform 19 of the mast are secured the fastening cables 10 which are anchored to the ground at the other end in a circular arrangement around the mast, tension springs being incorporated therewith.

The tension springs are fitted in special casings 2O and these sometimes receive, as is shown in a large scale drawing in Figure 12, several springs of different strengths for the it is rotatable, into the nose of the air-ship. The nose of the air-ship is attached by securing cable 2 which is passed over a pulley 2G -to the windlass Q8 situated at the botT tom'vof the supporting column. In this case rection should gusts of wind occur, and,

moreover, it can also yield in an axial direction against the influence of the compression springs 18 if it receives vertical bullets from the wind. Likewise, the whole mast functions. in the case of any blow from the airship on the Wind-protection cap, as au elastic butter, which can even be furnished with flexible shock absorbers.

The embodiment according to Figure 7 differs from those previously described in the first place in that the air-ship mast is yconstructed as a double column. An outer column 29 rests by means of arlower ball 29a in a bearing socket 30 and carries at its upper end a. platform 31, on which is mounted a rigid platform 31a; the securing cables 10 are connected to the platform 31 and incorporate the elastic spring members 20. In this exterior swinging column an inner column 32 is rotatably mounted.and the lower pivot 33 is received in a bearing 35 of A the outer column, and bears on a spring 34.

The upper end ofthe outer column 29 is rotatably connected to the inner column 32 through balls 296. The upper end of the inner column, which projects above the outer column 29 forms a vertical pivot 32a on which the wind-protection cap 35, which is of girder-construction, is rotatably mounted. At the same time, in this case. the vertical axis 32a crosses the longitudinal axis of the wind-protection cap at about the middle of the length of the latter, so that the inner.

surface of the wind-protection cap lies on the one side of the vertical axis 3.2/1. and l oint on its other side, whereby thev 2 is passed over the top pulley 26 to the nose way leads from-the nose of the air-ship into v the wind-protection cap, which step can be ie` bearing socket 7l.

volved with the Wind-protection ncap, and which borders closely on the platfornrfilu. A spiral staircase 24 which encircles the outer mast, leads to the platform 31a, or a. staircase or ladder fittcdwin the inner niastmay be utilized..

Figure 8 shows a particularly simple. em-

bodiment of the air-ship mast With inner and outer columns similar' to Figure 7. In this case the inner column 32?) is inclinable in all directions through a lower ball joint 70, 'while at the saine time the mast is rotatable lthrough the medium of a suitable The outer column is reduced to a collar 76. which is mounted on the inner column 32?) by means of balls 72 Y and which is supported by ball bearings 74 on a bearingV ring 75 of the inner column. To this collar 7 G are again attached the elastic securing cables l() which encircle the mast.

In the base of the inner column the windlass 28 is situated. the cable 2 of which Windlass passes over the pulley 26 at the top of the mast to the air-ship; The inner column has at its lhead a rectangular and rigidly fixed frame 78, which takes the form of a Windprot-ection cap, and which is provided with a step or gangway 77, which leads from the column 32?) and to the entrance of the air-ship. One arrives at the step 77 by a spiralistaircase 7 9 which is merely secured to the column 32?), and which rims partly out side and partly inside the column. The mast, step or gangwayand Wind-protection cap form in the present case one rigidly constructed unit, but at the same time the rotatability of the mast-top, together with the. inner column 325, as also the ability of the mast to incline in all directions, together with the upper collar 76 which represents the outer column, in ensured in every Way. An embodiinentof this kind of air-ship mast is, of course, also possible Without Wind-protection cap.

A further modification of the construction of the air-ship mast, according to the present invention. is shown in Figure 9. In this case the mast 8O rests with its ball pivot 81 in a .socket 82 in a pit 83. The mast 80 which is approximately square i-n cross-section, carries the ring 84 of a ball bearing, between the outer ring of which and the pit walls radially arranged `coil springs S6 are fitted,

' which maintain the mast 80 in coniilibrium,`

but which also allow of-an elastic yielding of the same in all directions. The pit 8f3 is covered .np by aV plate S7 which has a opening to permit of the swingingmm-en'ient of the mast. Around the mast runs astairway 88 to the Windprotection cap 89" Which is fixed rigidly on the top of" the mast, which Wind-protection cap is connected to the airvcarries the wind-protection cap 39 is suspeiided from a girder 41 with its head downwards and its jointed foot upwards, and such gli-der is carried by a second mast 42. In this case also t-lie mast 40 is firmly held by elastic tensioning devices to the girder 41 to enable 'it to yield in all directions. In the case of the embodiment according to Figure l() the girder mast- 42 ends in a platform 43, which is reached by a stairway 44 or by a lift. A hood 45 may be revolved around the, platform 43 and such hood is supported on upper ball bearings 4G and side rollers 48 bearing against a frame 47 under the platform. On a pivot 49 of the .hood head, a. giidcr 4l is disposed in a manner permitting it to swing about a horizontal axis, and sprii'igs are arranged between the girder 41 and the lateral stops 450J on the hood 45 for the purpose of restricting the swinging motion. Near the ends of the girder 41 are suspended in ball joints 5() masts 51 which project downwards, and which receive a step or gangway 53 at the lou-'er joint 90. This gangway 53 carries by means of stays 58 the wind-protection cap 59. The masts 51 are held in tension by several coil springs 54 fixed to the girder 41, sometimes in circular formation. The bearings of the ball joints 50, are suspended on the supporting pins 55 which are supported by the bearing plates 56 on the compression-springs 57 which are supported by the girder. The step or gang- Way 53 encircles the hood 45 with an intervening space, except for a bridge connection 60, which is attached to the hood at one side,-

and which borders at its inner end against the inner platform 43 of the mast 42 in every position of the hood, and which opens at its` outer end into the forepart of the rotatable and inclinable step or gangway 53. On the. step or gangway 53 is situated the windlass 61; the nose of the air-ship is anchored to the. securing cable 2 which runs from the windlass, and the opening in the nose of the air-ship is connected with the gangway over the bridge 62. can automatically adapt itself to the particular direction of the Wind, by virtue of the suspension of its supporting members .about a vertical axis. Upon the occurrence of gusts of Wind from the side, the cap yields corre spondingly with the air-ship in the direction The wind-protection cap 59 v ing means on said head for anchoring the airship, a supporting column having a joint at the Jfoot to allow said column to incline in any direction, spring tensioning devices to resiliently hold said column in position, and

a resilient support for the said column so that it is movable under spring control in the direction of its vertical axis. j

7. An air-ship mast havingv a head rotatable in all directions about an axis normally vertical, a bridge or gangway incorporated with said head, a wind-protection shield on said head arranged so that the said axis passes between its bearing surface and peak, and so that the surface exposed to the wind pressure on the front side or air-ship side of the axis is larger than that on the rear side of the axis, and securing means on said head of the mast for anchoring the air-ship.

8. An air-ship mast having a head rotatable in all directions about an axis normally vertical, a bridge or gangway incorporated with said head, a wind-protection shield on said head arranged so that the said axis passes between its bearing surface and peak. and so that the surface exposed to the wind pressure on the Jfront side or air-ship side of the axis is larger than that on the rear side of the axis, securing means on said head for anchoring the 'air-ship, a supporting column having a joint at the foot to allow said column to incline in anv direction. spring tensioning devices to resiliently hold the column in position, and a resilient support for the P said column so that it is movable under spring control in the direction of its vertical axis.

9. An air-ship mast having a head rotatable in all directions about an axis normally vertical, a bridge or gangway incorporated with said head, a wind-protection shield on said head arranged so that the `said axis passes between its bearing surface and peak, securing means on said head for anchoring the air-ship, a supporting column having a joint at the foot to allow said column to incline in any direction, spring tensioning devices, having springs of unequal strength, to resiliently hold said column in position, and a resilient support for the said column so i that it is movable under spring control in the direction of its vertical axis.

l0. An air-ship mast having a head rotatable in all directions about an axis normally vertical, a bridge or gangway incorporated with said head, a wind-protectionshield on the head arranged so that the said axis passes between its bearing surface and peak, secar-pr ing means on said head for anchoring the air-ship, a supporting column having a joint at the foot to allow said column to incline in any direction, spring tensioning devices to resiliently hold said column in position,

eline in any direction, a spring auxiliary spring devices for combining with the said spring tensioning devices to increase the strength, means for combining with the said tensioning devices for cutting out the spring action, and a resilient support for the said column so that it is movable under the spring control in the direct-ion of the vertical axis. s

11. Air-ship mast having a head rotatable in all directions about an axis normally vertical, a bridge or gangway incorporated in said head, a wind-protection shield on the head so arranged that the said axis passes between its beariii surface and peak, securing means for anc ioring the air'ship, a supporting column formed of several parts, a joint at the foot of said supporting column to allow said column to incline in any direction, spring tensioning devices to resiliently hold said column in position, and resilient su porting means so that said column is mov` ab e under spring control in the direction of its vertical axis.

12. Air-ship mast having a head rotatable in all directions about an axis normally vertical, a bridge or gangway incorporated in said head, a wind-protection shield on said head so arranged that the said axis passes between the bearing surface and peak, securing means for anchoring the air-ship, a supporting column formed of two parts one of which is rotatable in relation to the other, a joint at the foot ot' said column to allow said column to incline in any direction, elastic tensioning devices for holding said column in position connected to the non-rotatable art of said column, and 'resilient support ing means so that said column is movable under spring control in the direction of its vert-ical axis.

1B. Air-ship mast having a head rotatable in all directions about an axis normally ver-4 tical, a gangway incorporated in said head; a wind-protection shield 'on said head so arranged that the said axis passes between its bearing surface and its peak,- securing means v for anchoring the air-ship, a mast mounted so that it can incline in any direction, spring tensioning devices for holding said mast in position, means whereby said mast is resiliently movable in the direction of its longitudinal axis, a girder from which the said mast is suspended in an invertedl position, and a. second mast on which the said girder is rotatably mounted.

14. Air-ship mast having a. head rotatable in all directions about an axis normallyvertical, a gangway incorporated in said head, a wind-protection shield onmsaid head so arranged that the said axis passes between its bearing surface and its peak, securing-means for anchoring the air-ship, a mast with spring tensioning devices for holding the/said mast in position and allowing the said mast to inbearing whereby the said mast is movable in a. lon tudinal direction, a girder from which t e said niastis-suspended in an inverted position, and asccond mast on which the said girder is rotatably mounted and also mounted to rotate about a horizontal axis under spring control.

15. Air-ship mast having a head rotatable in all directions about an axis normally vertical, a gangway incorpoiated in said head, a wind-protection shield on said head so arranged that the said axis passes between its bearing surface and its peak, securing means for anchoring the air-ship, a mast with spring tensioning devices for holding the said mast in position and allowingr the said mast to inoline in any direction, a spring bearing Whereby the said mast is movable in a longitudinal direction, a second mast, a hood rotatable round the head of the second mast, a girder mounted to rotate about a horizontal axis on said hood and on which the rst mentioned mast is suspended in an inverted position and v compression springs bearing on lateral stops on said hood and also bearing against said girder. v

16. Aix-ship mast having a head rotatable in all directions about an axis normally vertical, a gangway incorporated in said head, a wind-protection shield on said head so arranged that the said axis passes `between its bearing surface and its peak, securingmeans for anchoring the air-ship, a mast mounted so that it can incline ir. any direction, a spring bearing whereby the said mast is movable in a longitudinal direction, spring tensioning devices for holding the mast in position and allowing the mast to incline in all directions,

a second mast, a hood rotatable round the y head of the second mast, a girder mounted to rotate about a horizontal axis on said hood and on which the said first mentioned mast is suspended in an inverted position, compression springs bearing on lateral stops on said hood and also bearing against said girder, a platform on the said second mentioned mast, and a stairway leading from the' ground to the platform.

17. An air-ship mast having a head rotatable in'all directions about a normally vertical axis, a Wind-protection shield so ar ranged that the said axis passes between its bearing face and its apex, means for anchoring said air-ship carried by the head, a mast which is mounted so that it may incline in an direction, tensioningdevicestoresiliently ho d said mast 1n position, a spring bearing in which the said mast is mounted so that it is resiliently movable in the direction of its longitudinal axis, a girder which supports the said mast in an inverted position, an annular gangway carried by the said mast, a

second mast, a hood rotatably mounted at the head of the second mast and on which the-said girder is pivotally mounted, a platform ou the top of said second mentioned 53 mast and a bridge carried by said hood which v vbridges the space between the said platform' @which is mounted so that it may incline in any direction, tensioning devices to resiliently hold said mast in position, a spring bearing in which the said mast is mounted so that it is resiliently movable in the direction of its longitudinal axis, a girder supporting the said mast in an inverted position, an annular gangway carried by 'the said mast, and a windlass or anchoring attachment carried by said annular gangway.

19. An air-ship mast having -a head rotatable in all directions about a normally vertical axis, a wind-protection shield so arranged that the said axis passes between its caring face and its apex, means for anchoring the ain-ship carried by said head, a mast which is-'mounted so that it may incline in any direction, devicesto resiliently hold said mast in position,a spring bearing in which the said mast is mounted so that it is resiliently movable in the direction of its longitudinal axis, a girder supporting the said mast in an inverted position, anannular gang- Way carried by the said mast, a. windlass carried'by said annular gangway, stays carried by said annular ganga-ay and supportin said Wind-protection shield enclosing said mast-'and said girder. y

In witness whereof I have signed this speciicat-ion at Frankfort A/M., Germaig, this 28th day of July, 1930.

HEINRICH STRIEFFLER. 

